Study: Sunday Talk Shows Overwhelmingly White, Male, Republican

The graphic is by Think Progress, the numbers are from Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, and the conclusion is clear: not only is the media NOT – in any way, shape or form – “liberal” (which the teahadists’ tshirts and signs tell you not to believe, it’s actually biased heavily to the right, at least on the influential Sunday talk shows. Even when the networks DO have Democrats on their shows, FAIR points out that they “tend to be of a more moderate variety than the Republicans” (people like conservadem Harold Ford and whatever-he-is Juan Williams). What about progressive voices to balance out the deluge of (far)right-wing voices on the Sunday talk shows? Ha, you MUST be kidding!

Meanwhile, as if the wild ideological imbalance towards the (far) right isn’t bad enough, the major networks also don’t seem to like having women or non-white faces (unless they’re super entertaining, “controversial” and conservative like Herman Cain) on their shows.

In sum, FAIR concludes: “It’s likely that the other networks would never say that they aim to provide a very narrow, very white and male, overwhelmingly conservative view of the world to their viewers every Sunday morning. But that’s precisely what they do.“

That is the reality of the system, I thought you understood that. The same faces show up over and over on show after show, sometimes the same faces on two or three of the shows on the same Sunday, spouting the same, stale opinions masquerading as “facts,” all of them confirming the Conventional Wisdom in one way or another.

Would it not be nice, even stunning, to hear, say Paul Krugman or Ha-Joon Chang on economics, for example? Not to mention an actual African-American professor or social worker, a doctor and patient from, say, France or Sweden… the possibilities are endless. Unfortunately, the hosts of the talk shows are literally afraid to go outside the usual circle of well-vetted “guests,” because that way, they are sure they will not be embarrassed by any untoward surprises. This pitiful performance passes for journalism.

glennbear

The demographic shown here for guests was exactly the audience Murdoch was targeting when he started Fox “news”.